Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission in its order dated 11th April, 2017, has approved the retail supply tariff for 2017-18. The tariff hike proposed by the KERC for industrial and commercial consumers and a comparison of the existing and the new tariff proposed by the commission can be seen as follows:

The table below represents the cross subsidy charges worked out as per the different consumer category:

KERC has notified Fourth Amendment to KERC (Procurement of Energy from Renewable Resources) Regulations on October 27th, 2016. The draft of the proposed amendment is available in www.kerc.org. The highlights of the amendment are:

Every distributions licensee, captive consumer and open access consumers may purchase REC or consume electricity generated from its own Renewable Energy Power Plant whether grid connected or otherwise, to meet its RPO either entirely or partly.

The obligation of distribution licensees to purchase electricity from solar energy may be fulfilled by purchase of solar REC’s only.

The capacity of Renewable Energy Power Plant owned by the obligated entity shall not be less than 250Kw.

KERC has invited written comments/views/suggestions on the proposed amendment latest by November 26th 2016 from interested parties.

In the follow-up after Draft Regulation on Forecasting & Scheduling for the Wind & Solar projects at Intra State level in Karnataka and based on the mechanism suggested in the Model Regulation, KERC has finally released the notification for DSM regulation on Forecasting and Scheduling for wind and solar in Karnataka.

Executive Summary:

 Forecasting and scheduling will be mandatory for all wind generators having a combined installed capacity of 10 MW and 5 MW for wind and solar respectively at the pooling station.

 Deviations will be calculated on the basis of Available Capacity (AvC).

 The deviation slab has been kept as (+/-) 15% for all the wind and solar generators beyond which penalty is applicable at fixed rate as defined below.

 Settlement will be done through the “Qualified Coordinating Agency” or QCA, or the “Aggregator”.

 SCADA & Telemetry data is to be mandatorily provided to SLDC. Protocols for the same shall be determined later by the SLDC through the detailed procedures.

 Provision of six months for existing wind and solar generators to comply with the regulation from the date of publication of these regulations in the official gazette.

 All the new wind and solar generators which shall be commissioned after six months from the effective date of the regulation shall comply these norms before commissioning of the project and connecting with the state grid.

 16 revisions allowed during the intraday with each revision effective from 4th time block.

The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) in its order in April 2016 has finalized the APPC applicable for FY 15-16 and has also revised the APPC applicable for FY 16-17.

Previously the commission in its notification dated 30.03.2015 set the APPC rate for FY 15-16 at Rs. 3.11 per unit, but now through revision, the commission has reduced that from 3.11 per unit to 3.06 per unit for FY 15-16.

The order also said mentioned that the difference of 4 paisa per unit shall be recovered by the ESCOM’s from the RE generators in three equal installments.

The commission in the order has also finalized the APPC applicable for FY 16-17 at Rs. 3.10 per unit; this APPC might go through another revision once the ESCOM’s will finalize their accounts. The graph below gives the APPC’s given by the KERC in its various orders

Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission in its order dated 30th March 2016, approved the retail supply tariff for 2016-17. The tariff hike proposed by KERC for domestic category and industrial consumers and a comparison of the existing and new tariff approved by the commission can be seen in the table below:

The table below is the cross subsidy charges worked out as per the different the consumer category.

The Commission, in its Order dated 1st January, 2015 on BESCOM’s Review Petition noted that there was substantial reduction in the capital cost of grid connected solar power plants.

Therefore, it examined the need to curtail the present control period and re-determine the tariff in separate proceedings, in the midcourse. The Commission, in modification of its Order dated 10th October, 2013, decided that the norms and tariff determined in this Order shall be applicable to all new grid connected MW scale solar PV and solar thermal power plants, entering into Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) on or after 1st September, 2015 to 31st March, 2018.

For determining the tariff of the same, comments/suggestion of the stakeholders on the capital cost, operational and financial parameters were invited. The table below depicts the proposed capital costs for solar PV projects and solar thermal projects before and after the midcourse re-determination of tariff.

Based on the comments and suggestions received from various stakeholders on the abstract of the parameters considered for determination of the tariff, the commission approved the following tariff on 30th July 2015 which differs from the earlier determined tariff.

Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) after deliberating on Aptel order dated 26th April 2010, decided not to impose RPO on any person consuming electricity from Co-generation power plants on its order dated 8th May 2013. Subsequently similar matter was challenged before the Honorable Supreme Court where the Supreme Court passed an order upholding the regulations regarding imposing obligations upon captive consumers on 13th May 2015.

In the light of Supreme Court order, KERC thus decided to recall its order dated 8th May 2013, with immediate effect and made RPO obligation applicable on captive co-gen power plants. Hence all the captive co-gen power plants will have to meet their RPO obligations which will help in promoting the REC mechanism in the state of Karnataka.

Hon’ble commission through a gazette copy dated 21.06.2013 has come up with a new Average Pooled Purchase Cost (APPC) rate of 3.07 Rs. per unit. This APPC rate is for a period starting from 01.04.2013 – 31.03.2014. An interim APPC rate for FY13 previously determined was Rs. 2.60 per unit, which stands ineffective post 30th June 2013 ( for previous relevant blog-post, click here).

The new APPC rate is Rs. 0.47 per unit more and has been worked out taking into consideration the power purchase quantum data furnished by respective ESCOMs of the state. All the payments with respect to the difference of Rs. 0.47 per unit will be made to RE generators in three instalments as per the energy generated post 01.04.2013 till the date of this order.

The new APPC rate which is 18.07 % more poses lucrative options for RE projects. The APPC + REC model will now fetch minimum Rs.4.57 per unit to RE generators of the state. As far as REC mechanism is concerned the state still needs to revamp relevant regulations in line with those of CERC.